Medical devices are an important part of the health industry and are responsible for the health of many people. Many life-saving procedures can be performed today because of advances in medical device technology. Stents, for instance, are examples of medical devices that are used in a variety of medical procedures. When stents are used in the context of the vascular system, they can open blocked vessels, increase the flow of blood and prevent reoccurrence of the blockage. Stents are not limited, however, to the vasculature system and can be employed in many systems and circumstances.
The production of medical devices such as stents can be a complicated process. Producing the stent includes forming struts that are arranged to provide strength and flexibility to the stent. The struts can be formed, for example, by laser cutting.
Once the stent is formed, the stent needs to be polished. The stent is polished in order to remove the rough edges that may remain on the stent and to smooth the surface of the stent. As one can image, a stent with rough edges may have adverse effects if introduced into a patient's vasculature. The stent could cut a vessel's wall, for instance, or become inadvertently displaced.
Electropolishing is an example of a method used to polish stents. Electropolishing is a common process that is usually performed by immersing the stents in an electrolytic bath. In conventional systems, however, maintaining a consistent surface finish, particularly along the inner surface of the stent, can be difficult.
More specifically, electropolishing stents requires contact between the stent and an electrode. The contact between the electrode and the stent surface, however, impedes electropolishing at the contact points. As a result, the stent is polished at a different rate at or near the contact points compared to other areas of the stent. There is therefore a need to minimize this effect in order to ensure that surface finish of a stent remains as consistent as possible throughout the electropolishing process.
This process of manufacturing stents is further complicated as the struts become thinner. Thinner struts can make the stent more susceptible to damage. Handling the stent during the electropolishing process becomes more difficult. Because the struts are thinner, it is more challenging to insert, rotate, and remove stents from the anode or mandrel without inadvertently damaging the stent. These problems become more severe as the length of the stents increase. Thus, there is a need for an electropolishing fixture that is easier to load and unload stents or devices and that reduces the risk of damaging the stents or other devices while the stent or device is produced.